Jim Cavale

About Jim Cavale

Growing up in Syracuse, NY, I found success in baseball and basketball at Christian Brothers Academy. That journey took me miles south with a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Montevallo (UM). When pro ball didn’t pan out, God redirected my passion toward entrepreneurship. While in college, I launched NextSpex—an audio-video streaming solution that evolved into a recruiting network connecting high school athletes and college coaches.After exiting NextSpex in 2010, I partnered with my mentor Forrest Walden to transform his garage gym into Iron Tribe, a national fitness brand with 47 franchise locations. As President, I was empowered to innovate and grow our impact across the country.In 2016, a buyout of my Iron Tribe stock gave me the runway to start building INFLCR. I saw that college athletes weren’t being empowered to build their personal brands online—something that would soon become essential with the growing momentum around name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights.We launched the INFLCR app in 2017 to help college athletes grow their brands on social media. Within two years, we had 200 partners, teams, and athlete users. In 2019, Teamworks acquired INFLCR, and I remained CEO through the early years of NIL’s legalization in 2021. INFLCR quickly became the NIL back office for most of college sports—processing payments, reporting deals, and helping athletes with IRS filings. Over $100M in NIL deals flowed through our platform in the first few years.In August 2023, I stepped down as INFLCR’s CEO, staying on as a Teamworks shareholder and launching my next venture: Athletes.org (AO).AO is a players’ association for college athletes—like the NFLPA or NBPA—delivering on-demand support, group licensing opportunities, and a unified voice. We’re building what’s never existed before in college sports: the infrastructure for athletes to collectively bargain. The only enforceable, litigation-free path to rules in college athletics is through a collective bargaining agreement—and AO is building that path.Biggest lesson so far? It’s about the journey and the people. Surround yourself with great teammates, cast a clear vision, and go win together.

Experience

1. Chairman

   Athletes.Org

   Aug 2023 — Present

   Athletes.org (AO) is a 501c non-profit organization designed exclusively for college athletes to receive on-demand support in navigating their respective college athletics experience and a voice to speak into the future of college athletics.All athletes who sign up for their free AO membership will have an exclusive login to their AO member app. AO member athletes will receive on-demand support through a series of knowledge, access, and protection app features, providing them with the ability to ask any question to the app, interact with a pro bono expert, and view a registry of AO verified agents and collectives. AO member athletes will gain a voice through chapters based on their sport and conference, fostering collaboration and feedback for AO to advocate for its member athletes regarding new college athletics investments under consideration (referenced in the NCAA’s Transformation Committee report).

Education

• University of Montevallo

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Broadcast Journalism

  2002 — 2005

• Ithaca College

  Journalism

  2000 — 2002

Skills

• Marketing Strategy
• Social Media
• Sports Marketing
• Sports
• Broadcast Television
• Sales Process
• Connectivity
• Sales
• Sponsorship
• Video Production
• Innovation
• Business Development
• Building Relationships
• Fitness
• Product Innovation
• Social Media Marketing
• Event Planning
• Entrepreneurship
• Direct Marketing
• Small Business
• Digital Direct Marketing
• Revenue Streams
• Editing
• Television
• Software Project Management
• Strategic Leadership
• Coaching
• Web Broadcasting
• Advertising
• Team Building
• Leadership
• Public Speaking